Tornadoes are terrifying. They are nature at its most surreal: a swirling column of air carving up the earth beneath it. They don’t even need to fling sharks at us to make us feel puny and insignificant.

Shot in the Detroit area, “Into the Storm” knows this, and exploits it shamelessly. The movie exists to indulge our morbid fascination with scenes of mass destruction. Although cursory research shows that tornadoes of the size and frequency of those in the film aren’t too far outside the realm of possibility, realism is beside the point. Its success hinges on whether it’s convincing or not, and the film’s deployment of digital imagery succeeds reasonably well at tapping into the primal core of human fear and astonishment, and therefore suspending disbelief.

That’s the only emotion the film successfully manipulates, however. The humans populating the screenplay are remedial characters with arcs ripe for the reality check that an all-encompassing natural disaster can provide. High-school principal and single dad Gary (Richard Armitage) doesn’t have much time for his teenage sons, Donnie (Max Deacon) and Trey (Nathan Kress). Donnie can barely summon the courage to talk to his crush, Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey). A group of frustrated storm chasers keeps missing tornadoes for a documentary film, which is near getting its funding yanked; meteorologist Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies, of “The Walking Dead”) and the film’s star, Pete (Matt Walsh), are the key squabblers. Grand Rapids actor Brandon Ruiter has a bit role as an egotistical basketball star who needs a big slice of humble pie.

The drama is often painfully, unnaturally earnest. Donnie and Kaitlyn are stuck under debris at the old abandoned mill; Gary needs to herd kids to safety when the storm hits during a graduation ceremony; Allison Skypes with her five-year-old daughter, who she hasn’t seen in three months. Comic relief is provided by a pair of drunk redneck stereotypes who chase tornadoes in their junker pickup truck, whooping and yee-hawing while their video cameras roll. Most of this is cringingly awful, and the yokels are a woeful miscalculation.

Structurally, the film is contrived to feature several characters who are amateur or professional videographers, so it’s shot almost entirely from human, ground-level points-of-view. The idea functioned better with this year’s “Godzilla,” another man-vs.-nature story, albeit a more effective one, in part because the giant-monster movie didn’t force the perspective into the hands of people who should probably drop the camera and stick their heads in a safe place.

“Into the Storm” trots out a variety of tornadoes, from quick-hit twisters to full-blown firenadoes (that’s a real thing, folks). It’s obvious more effort was put into making the storms distinguishable than the characters, suggesting the film is designed first and foremost as entertainment, a totally awesome display of nature run amok, emphasis on the “totally” and “awesome.” The scenery may take a serious digital beating, but there’s no avoiding the idea that human hubris gets walloped, too.

John Serba is film critic and entertainment reporter for MLive and The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jserba@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.